1. Field of the Invention
This invention is generally related to drug delivery devices, such as balloons devices for drug delivery.
2. Description of the State of the Art
Drug delivery to the vascular is currently done orally, by direct injection, and drug coated stent. Also most recently, mechanical intervention of vascular conditions is used as a vehicle for providing biological therapy. For example, drug coated balloons have been experimented with. The drug coated stent and balloon have the advantage of delivering the drug directly to the target location. The drug target may be a lesion, restenosed stent, venerable plaque, or other treatable vascular anomaly.
The delivery of these nanobeads, and also the delivery of drugs from conventional drug eluting stents or drug coated balloons, to a lesion are by drug releasing from the nanobeads, or drug coating, through the vessel wall into the lesion and surrounding tissue. During this process the majority of the drug, about 90%, is lost to the blood stream.
Additionally, a problem associated with the balloon as drug delivery vehicle is that it can not be inflated for long, as stopping the blood flow in the vessel is detrimental to the patient.
The embodiments described below address the above-identified problems.